Deck Overview- Modern Esper Control

We recently saw a Narset Transcendent spike based on a fringe Modern deck, and last weekend a similar deck took 9th at the Columbus Modern Classic. Fatal Push is making such decks much more appealing, and Ryan Hovis’ list has already caused market movement on Esper Charm and Runed Halo. Here is his list:

I find the lack of Lingering Souls quite odd, though this deck definitely doesn’t need to do a lot of blocking. The more glaring issues I have are three Logic Knots to zero Mana Leaks and not playing Torrential Gearhulk over at least one Sphinx’s Revelation. All in all though, this deck is going to be great at shutting down opposing strategies and generating card advantage. I can’t help but wonder if the sideboard Crumble to Dusts are enough against Tron, and that would be the matchup I am most concerned about.

Should this deck be successful in the coming weeks, I would expect there to be more market movement. There are too many Cryptic Commands out there to expect much growth on that one, though this isn’t the only Snapcaster Mage deck that will be gaining traction. There is real concern of Snapcaster getting a Modern Masters reprint, though if it doesn’t the growth there would likely be huge. A card that is most on the safe side, and that sees play in Cube, Commander, and Legacy is Supreme Verdict. It’s poised to grow over time should it dodge a reprint, and already buylists close to $3 as compared to its $4 retail price.

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Comments

Hey Ryan, thanks for the write up. A quick note is that barring a reprint Celestial Colonnade is also a good target from this list which could see and immediate bump. I could see it moving back to the $25-30 range which represents 25%+ growth from its current $20 tag.

Hey Ryan, nice writeup. I think that anything less than the full complement of 4 Paths and 4 Pushes is playing with fire, and I’d be tempted to consider something like Elspeth, Sun’s Champion to close out games over Secure the Wastes. Runed Halo is pretty sweet tech, though.